The Kremlin has said Moscow wants to work with the British on investigating the nerve agent but that London has shown no interest so far [PPIO]

A delegation from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) will visit the UK over the next two days to assess the nerve agent Novichok which was allegedly used in the assassination attempt of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal.

The Novichok nerve agent was developed by the defunct Soviet Union in the 1970s but was scrapped by Russia when it destroyed its chemical weapons stockpile and retired all such programs in 1992.

UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has told British media that his government has evidence that Moscow has been experimenting with nerve agents such as Novichok for the purpose of carrying out assassination attempts.

Russia has dismissed such accusations as flights of fancy and said that there are other countries who have since the 1980s shown interest in the manufacture and delivery of Novichok.

President Vladimir Putin, who won reelection on Sunday, has dismissed the allegations saying it was ludicrous that Russia would carry out such an act just days ahead of the presidential election and the FIFA World Cup.

He said that Russia wanted to work with the British in investigating the agent but that such cooperation was not forthcoming from London.

Putin also raised doubt that the Novichok nerve agent used was military grade because it would have killed many people on the spot.

Skripal and his daughter were found slumped unconscious on a bench in Salisbury, England. They have been hospitalized in critical condition since March 4.

With voter turnout at more than 67 per cent, Russian president Vladimir Putin has been re-elected with an overwhelming majority in Sunday’s election.

Putin won 76 per cent of the vote, with 99 per cent of ballots counted, Russia’s Central Election Commission reported.

That’s an increase from his 62 per cent win in the 2012 election.

Communist party candidate Pavel Grudinin came in second with only 11.82 per cent while hardline nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky won 5.7 per cent.

At a rally held in Moscow’s central Manezgnaya Square as the results were announced, Putin thanked his supporters and said the vote was a mandate that he has been on the right track; he pledged to do more for Russia.

At least 73 million people voted at 96,704 polling stations throughout the country.
The BRICS Post with inputs from Agencies

Russian President Vladimir Putin was the first to congratulate Xi [PPIO]

Chinese President Xi Jinping was re-elected as the country’s leader by unanimous vote during the 13th National Party Congress on Saturday.

He was also selected as the chairman of the Central Military Commission.

This election, which appears to have no term limit, effectively makes Xi the most powerful political player in China.

Russian President Vladimir Putin quickly called to congratulate Xi.

“This decision made by the National People’s Congress once again proves your high prestige, and represents a recognition of Your contribution to promoting China’s rapid economic and social development and safeguarding China’s national interests on the global stage,” Putin was quoted by TASS as saying.

Citing new global conditions coupled with the party’s committment to develop socialism the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in late February said that it was necessary that constitutional term limits on the presidency be lifted.

The CPC Central Committee wants to revisit the paragraph which states:
“The term of office of the President and Vice-President of the People’s Republic of China is the same as that of the National People’s Congress, and they shall serve no more than two consecutive terms”.

The Central Committee says that this change is necessary because “the leadership of the Communist Party of China is the defining feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics”.

The Central Committee also proposed writing Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era into the national constitution alongside the schools of thought of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping.

On Saturday, Xi made a public oath of allegiance to the Constitution in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Russia says that it is only targeting areas that are being used by Islamist rebels to launch shelling of the capital Damascus [Image: Defense Ministry of Russia]

The Russian military says that more than 20,000 people fled the fighting between Syrian government forces and Islamist rebels in Eastern Ghouta in Damascus on Sunday.

The civilians have been using humanitarian corridors agreed to by the Russians and Syrians for the past two weeks, but the numbers sometimes slow to a trickle leaving the city amid air strikes and shelling.

The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said air raids on the Eastern Ghouta district of Zamalka killed 30 people who were about make use of the humanitarian corridor.

The Russian military says it only targets Islamist rebels who control Eastern Ghouta.

Ghouta has been demarcated into three zones currently under fire from a Syrian government land operation.

In the meantime, Staffan de Mistura, the UN Special Envoy for Syria, told the Security Council that the Russian military was able to broker a ceasefire with a number of Islamist rebels under the banner of Jaish Al Islam in the district of Douma only.

Douma is one of the three zones facing a land offensive from the Syrian Army.

He said that the UN was trying to persuade the militants holed up in the other two zones to also implement a ceasefire to allow civilians to leave.

Some UK officials are accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of direct involvement in the assassination of Skripal [PPIO]

Tensions between Russia and the UK were heightened on Saturday when Moscow ordered the British Council and British Consulate General in St. Petersburg closed.

UK Ambassador to Russia Laurie Bristow was summoned to the Foreign Ministry in Moscow and told of the closures as well as the expulsion of 23 UK diplomats in a retaliatory response to similar measures taken in London earlier in the week.

In a statement issued on the Russian Foreign Ministry website, Moscow said:

“The British side has been warned that in case further moves of an unfriendly nature towards Russia are implemented, the Russian side reserves the right to take other response measures.”

The UK diplomats are expected to leave by Tuesday.

The heightened tensions come after Russia said it was frustrated that the UK reportedly refused to share a sample of the Novichok nerve agent used in the alleged murder of former spy Sergei Skripal.

The Defense Ministry in Moscow has fired back at UK Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson characterizing him as having “an extreme degree of intellectual impotence” for saying Russia “should go away and shut up”.

On Thursday, Williamson made his statement during a press query about Russia’s response to allegations it was involved in the murder attempt of former spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, England.

Skripal and his daughter were found slumped on a park bench on March 4, poisoned by a deadly nerve agent from a batch known as Novichok; they are in critical but stable condition.

On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said while Williamson’s remarks are considered hostile, he believes the UK secretary of defense to be a “nice young man. He probably wants to get a place in history by making bold statements.”

He added that Williamson probably lacks upbringing, but that Moscow was not offended by his remarks.

Earlier in the week, UK Prime Minister Theresa May said it was highly likely that Russia was behind the Skripal case and demanded a response from Moscow.

Since then, the two countries have engaged in a spat over the case, with Russia saying it had nothing to do with Skripal since he resided in the UK.

Moscow has demanded that London provide a sample of the nerve agent to be inspected under the provisions of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).

Russia also said it would expel 23 UK diplomats in a reciprocal measure to London’s announcement on Wednesday it would expel 23 Russian diplomatic staff.

London also said that it had suspensed all planned high level bilateral contacts and would implement a boycott by ministers and the royal family of the FIFA World Cup in Russia this coming June.

On Thursday, France, Germany and the US weighed in on Russia’s involvement in the Skripal case:

“We, the leaders of France, Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom, abhor the attack that took place against Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury, UK, on March 4, 2018,” a joint statement said.

But Russia says it does not possess the Novichok nerve agent having scrapped all chemical weapons programs of the defunct Soviet Union in 1992.

Lavrov said Russia had nothing to do with the alleged murder attempt of former spy Sergei Skripal [Xinhua]

Russian Ambassador to the UK Alexander Yakovenko has called Prime Minister Theresa May’s order to expel some 23 Russian diplomatic staff “absolutely unacceptable” and a “provocation”.

He said the 23 and their families are not involved in the alleged murder attempt by nerve agent of Sergei Skripal in the city of Salisbury.

May had demanded that Russia respond to the alleged poisoning of Skripal and his daughter, both of whom are in intensive care, by Wednesday morning.

But Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia had nothing to do with the poisoning.

Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the press that his government would only respond after it receives an official request from London.

He had also demanded that the chemical agent used in the murder attempt to be examined in accordance to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).

He also called on both governments to hold talks about the alleged assassination attempt.

On Wednesday, May announced the expulsion order but also said she would suspend some senior-level exchanges with Russia.

She also said that she wanted to freeze Moscow’s assets in the UK, but provided no further details.

At the United Nations Security Council, Russia’s Permanent Representative Vasily Nebenzya said that his country had nothing to hide and called for a joint investigation according to the guidelines of the CWC.

He also stressed that Russia had never developed the Novichok array of nerve agents; these were developed by the defunct Soviet Union.

He also reminded the Security Council that Russia had halted and destroyed all its chemical weapons programs in 1992 in compliance with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

India’s energy needs are to grow congruent with its growing economy and improving lifestyle for tens of millions of people [Xinhua]

India will become the world’s greatest growth market of energy by 2040, a report from British Petroleum (PB) Energy.

The report, released earlier in the month in New York, forecasts growing influence of emerging economies on world energy markets and said they would become major players as living standards improved there.

Demand for oil and energy sources will be symbiotic with this improved living standard, the report said.

The hunger for energy supplies in these countries will run the gamut and see a rise in demand for coal, oil and gas, and green renewable sources such as solar and wind power.

In fact, natural gas will undergo great growth and replace coal as the second largest source of energy, particularly as such giant energy consumers like China move away from coal because of its polluting effects.

However, China will still account for 40 per cent of global coal demand in 2040.

The report said:

India’s slowing in demand growth is less pronounced and by the early 2030s it overtakes China as the world’s fastest growing market for energy. In the latter stages of the Outlook, Africa also plays an increasingly important role in driving energy demand, contributing more to global demand growth from 2035 to 2040 than China.

May said the attack on Skripal in the UK put innocent citizens at risk [Xinhua]

Russian officials have called UK Theresa May’s address to Parliament a “circus” and her implication that Moscow was behind the poisoning of a Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter “yet another new fairy tale”.

On Monday, May said that police investigations indicated that Skripal’s attempted murder in Salisbury was either “a direct act by the Russian state against our country,” or that Moscow had lost control of its nerve agents to unidentified groups.

On Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister said he had called on the UK to hand over samples of the chemical agent poison for study and verification, but that he had received no response.

“As soon as the rumors came up that the poisoning of Skripal involved a Russia-produced agent, which almost the entire English leadership has been fanning up, we sent an official request for access to this compound so that our experts could test it in accordance with the Chemical Weapons Convention [CWC],” Lavrov said.

Skripal and his daughter were found unconscious on a bench in a park in Salisbury last week. They are currently in critical condition in a local hospital.

“The conclusion is obvious: this is another information and political campaign, based on provocation,” said Maria Zakharova, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson.

Earlier, the Kremlin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said: “The mentioned Russian citizen worked for one of the British intelligence services, the incident occurred in Great Britain. This is not a matter for the Russian government.”

In the meantime, May said she would wait until midnight on Tuesday to hear back from Moscow about allegations they were involved in Skripal’s murder attempt.

She maintained that it was highly likely that Russia was responsible for the attack; however, she did not provide direct evidence.

Her testimony to Parliament was based on the fact that Russia had formerly manufactured the nerve agent used in the assassination attempt.

She also said that the Russian Ambassador to the UK Alexander Yakovenko had been summoned to Whitehall to explain his government’s position.

On Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that it had summoned UK Ambassador to Russia Laurie Bristow.

India’s landless, for hundreds of millions of poor farmers and for so-called tribal communities who often live in resource-rich areas where lucrative mining operations are causing massive environmental damage [Image: People’s Archive of Rural India]

The Indian government and the state of Maharashtra has promised tens of thousands of protesting farmers that it will expand the loan-waiver regimen and the transfer of forestland titles in their names.

Millions of people who live in India’s vast forest lands have never had legal rights to the land they live on nor the homes they had established.

In 2006, India passed the Forest Rights Act which was designed to right the wrongs that these forest inhabitants had faced in titles and deeds to forest lands.

However, since 2012 the Act has not been implemented and this has threatened the livelihood of some 10 million tribal peoples who live in the forest lands.

On Monday, the Maharashtra government said it would “100 per cent” meet the protesters demands including forestland titles and allowing residents there to till the land.

However, it asked for six months to fulfill its pledge to meet all demands.

The government’s acquiescence came after two days of protests as tens of thousands of forest people and farmers, with their families in tow, descended on the Maharashtra state capital of Mumbai in a bid to pressure the local government.

The protest was organized by the Communist Party of India and started in the Nashik district, 170 kilometers from Mumbai. Protesters and their families walked on foot to the state capital.

Several delegations from the forest land peoples and farmers met with government over the course of two days.

The protesters also demanded that they be paid 1.5 times the cost of their crops to compensate for losses in the agricultural sector.